4-0...

The ODI series in South Africa concluded today with the Indians not winning a single game. I had expected a series defeat but had hoped we would pull off at least one win. The men in blue have been losing quite consistently of late and journalists, former cricketers, passionate fans have all expressed their opinions, why we even had a parliamentary debate over the future of the team. Saurav Ganguly and VVS have been recalled to strengthen our "weak" batting order. Reading through news sites and individual blogs, the common consensus seems to be that this is a good move and should be followed by sacking Greg Chappell as the Indian coach. My question is what will this accomplish?, the whole saga I mean, getting ganguly/vvs back,sacking chappell, maybe even getting dravid to step down from captaincy and making ganguly lead(thats a far cry).I don’t care about ganguly,chappell,dravid or whoever else the media talks about, i care about the Indian cricket team and because I do I have to care about these individuals because they represent the team. Bluntly speaking I don’t think getting ganguly/vvs back or even otherwise this team will accomplish much, maybe they will start playing better collectively win a few matches, reach maybe the semi finals of the world cup but that’s it. Greg Chappell will go home quite a few dollars richer, ganguly/tendulkar/lax/maybe drvaid will retire in a couple of years after the world cup all to be included in the list of all time cricket greats (well maybe not laxman), and where does that leave Indian cricket, frankly nowhere, this is what has been happening and will continue to happen. Great players are not hard to find, great teams are and great teams are not formed overnight. I am neither a cricket administrator nor a cricket writer, heck i don’t even get to see a lot of cricket but i do think that unless we work at grass roots level to change the "system" of cricket in India nothing will happen, not in the recent future not ever. We need a good domestic circuit (not something where an Ajay Sharma or V.Rao can score runs at will), better pitches (ever wonder why we never had a half-decent fast bowler) and good coaching staff at the domestic level (I think this is being looked into,i.e. the maharashtra,punjab boards have realized the importance of good coaching staff).I could continue this rant about what needs to be changed in the "system" but then again who really cares about me ranting!